It has been a while since I have sat down post race and spent a long time staring at a blank word document attempting to think of a way to report on a race that doesn’t send people to sleep. In fact it has been 15 months. So I apologise in advance if I am a little rusty on the old race report.
First of all I have to say a huge thank you to AJ Thompson. Every year he offers his house (which is in prime location on the run course) in Kinloch to the ‘Gong Wizard’ athletes racing and he looks after us perfectly.
Photo Credit: AJ Thompson
This was my second time kicking off the year with a race in Kinloch and thank fully I came away better off this year than I did in 2013. I was pretty nervous race morning and I think it was a mixture of bad memories of the course and the fact I have not raced ITU for so long. I just took everything step by step with a little ride in the morning, some time spent relaxing then headed down to the race site where I registered and warmed up.
I had a quick chat with my coach Jamie before the race and he basically told me to go out and race as hard as I could so I would have an accurate idea of where I am at early on in the season. So that’s what I did.
I came out of the 750m non-wetsuit swim with the front group and we quickly caught the 3 girls up the rode, leaving some girls behind to form a group of seven. As soon as we jumped on our bikes, the rain started which added a whole other dynamic to the bike course. The worst thing that happened to our group was a chain coming off up the hill but nobody came down so it was actually a pretty successful ride.
I hit the 5km run in 5th position and battled for 2nd to 5th throughout the whole run. I tried to 
focus on the processes during the run instead of the outcome but just didn’t have the leg speed or race practice to do any damage. I crossed the line in 5th place and 2nd in the U23 Oceania category. If you want to see a great snapshot of the race, Tom Honig put together some great footage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-ts=1422579428&x-yt-cl=85114404&v=gXv2nPve7s8
On a whole I am happy with my first race of the season despite having plenty of things to work on in the coming weeks. Thank you to everyone who has helped me over the past 12 months through the ups and downs. There are too many people to name but without that support I wouldn’t be back where I am now. Next up is the Devonport Olympic distance race on the 21st of February.
Grace 🙂
gracemusgrove 